Digest

January 12, 2006|STAFF REPORTS

Palm Beach County

Woman pleads guilty in fatal accident

A 20-year-old woman who turned herself in to police nearly a year after a fatal 2004 crash was placed on 15 years of probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a crash involving death.

Jennifer Eve Hall, of the Acreage, will serve the first 18 months of her sentence in drug rehab, according to the negotiated plea agreement. Additionally, Circuit Judge Sandra McSorley ordered that Hall's driver's license be permanently revoked and required her to pay $15,000 in restitution to Marie Derius.

Maurice Derius, 64, of West Palm Beach, was driving on Haverhill Road about 5:45 a.m. on June 23, 2004, when Hall rear-ended him, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. The impact caused Derius to crash into a tree. He died at St. Mary's Medical Center.

Schools OK settlement over diploma delays

The Palm Beach County School Board voted 6-1 Wednesday, with Sandra Richmond dissenting, to approve a settlement with Jostens, Inc., stemming from the company's failure to deliver diplomas in time for May 2005 graduations at many county high schools.

Under the agreement, the company will be able to fulfill its obligations to print yearbooks for 11 schools during this school year. Jostens also will provide a $1,000 scholarship to all 24 high schools this May, and will do no further business with the district until at least summer 2008.

Man denied bail in road-rage shooting

Calling him a flight risk and a danger to the community, Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown on Wednesday denied bail to a 20-year-old man charged in a July fatal road-rage shooting.

"There is no special condition that would assure the safety of the community," Brown said at Gillion Graham's bond hearing.

Graham, a native of Jamaica, is accused of firing a handgun from a stolen Infiniti into the car of Michael Reich, 19, killing Reich and striking his passenger, Barbara Wallace, in the feet. The July 24 shooting was on Interstate 95 in Delray Beach. He faces charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. Police arrested him in Kansas.

Citing his fleeing the state after the shooting, Assistant State Attorney Terri Skiles asked that Graham be denied bond. The defense argued that Graham has family ties to West Palm Beach and lacked the money to leave.

West Boynton

Woman, man found in truck in canal

Two bodies were found Wednesday in a truck that was in a canal west of Boynton Beach, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

A passer-by called 911 about 3 p.m. after spotting a Chevrolet S-10 in the Boynton Canal, which runs perpendicular to Hagen Ranch Road and is south of Gateway Boulevard.

Investigators on Wednesday did not know how long the bodies -- a man and woman -- had been in the canal, sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said.

The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct autopsies to help identify the man and woman, who appear to be in their mid-20s, Miller said.

Deputies are investigating the incident as a one-car crash, he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office at 561-688-3000 or Crime Stoppers at 800-458-8477.

Boca Raton

Temporary fund-raiser keeps position at FAU

Onetime Washington, D.C., official and charity administrator Lawrence Davenport will steer Florida Atlantic University's fund-raising as the university weighs a major money-raising push.

Davenport is already at FAU, where he arrived in 2004 to oversee all non-academic operations. He has been filling in at the fund-raising job since August, when former chief Ann E. Paton left for Miami Shores-based Barry University.

Davenport originally planned to make it a temporary move, but FAU President Frank Brogan said he recently asked Davenport to stay on.

During Davenport's tenure, FAU logged a $500,000 gift for arts programs from insurance entrepreneur Barry Kaye and his wife, Carole, among other contributions.

Davenport came to FAU from Hale House, a prominent New York City children's organization.

He had been an assistant secretary of education and energy during the Reagan administration and deputy chief of the House of Representatives' support staff, among other posts.

FAU is talking about a potential campaign to raise perhaps $500 million, but hasn't completed any plans.